NEW ENTREPRENEURSHIP CENTER OPENS AT JEFFERSON COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Watertown, NY-- The Entrepreneurship Center at Jefferson Community College is now open for new business! Students, workshop participants and alumni can now receive assistance with starting a new business at the Entrepreneurship Center, located in Suite 3-103 in the Dulles Building. The Entrepreneurship Center, which opened with the start of the Fall semester, will provide support and expertise with filing legal documents, developing a business plan, creating marketing materials, learning accounting practices and other essentials related to starting a small business.
“Whether you’re a culinary student wanting to bring your pasta sauce to market, or a music student wanting to register a copyright on your first demo disk, or perhaps a local business owner taking a non-credit workshop relating to professional development, the Entrepreneurship Center at Jefferson will provide assistance,” said Vicki B. Quigley, Dean for the Business Division. “Faculty expertise, specialized course work in business and entrepreneurial studies, and access to college resources will fast-track the ability to start and test a new venture.”
Business professors Brian H. Murray and Cherie R. Ditch will be joined by new Entrepreneurship Coordinator Janet “Boo” Wells to provide management expertise to students interested in starting a business. Wells has been an adjunct instructor in the Business Division and Jefferson’s Table visiting chef for the past two years. She brings more than twenty-two years of business experience to the Entrepreneurship Center. Wells owns her own catering company, The Farm House Kitchen, and also serves as a consultant to those in the culinary field. She is a graduate of the University of Vermont and has completed advanced professional development courses at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.
The professional expertise of the Entrepreneurship Center faculty will be complemented by hands-on resources such as Quickbooks accounting software, desktop publishing software, and print resources all available for client use.
“Many people with the idea for a product or a business need a level of assistance that is basic and precedes assistance from the Small Business Development Center (SBDC), also housed on the Jefferson campus, or the incubator at the Watertown Center for Business and Industry,” said Quigley. “With the Entrepreneurship Center combined with Jefferson’s entrepreneurship business courses, non-credit small business workshops and the SBDC, Jefferson is a valuable one-stop resource to people with the entrepreneurial spirit.”
“Our goal is to move students closer to making their career goals a reality, whether it is through starting a business or galvanizing the desire to continue their education and earn a four-year degree,” said Wells.
Jefferson Community College offers 14 career degree programs, 12 degree programs designed for transfer and 6 certificate programs. Six programs, including the Business Administration A.S. degree, are available entirely online. Along with its credit bearing programs, the College offers a variety of professional growth and personal enrichment workshops, seminars and workforce training opportunities through the Continuing Education Division. All students, alumni and non-credit workshop participants may utilize the Entrepreneurship Center.
Students and alumni with an idea for a small business may contact the Entrepreneurship Center at (315) 786-2287.